Gibbs & Gabriel Start: My Arsenal Starting XI To Face Bayern Munich

Arsenal take on Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena tomorrow night hoping to give our hopes of qualifying for the knockout stages a major boost. This is the eleven I’d go with:

Goalkeeper: Cech

Petr Cech should start, obviously.

Defence: Debuchy, Gabriel, Koscielny, Monreal

As we reported earlier, Wenger revealed at his press conference this evening that Bellerin has been ruled out of the game after picking up a groin injury. Therefore, we have little option but to start Debuchy.

The out-of-form Frenchman up against the likes of Costa and Muller….gulp. So with that in mind, I’d start Gabriel alongside Koscielny. We’ve lost Bellerin’s recovery pace on that side of the back-four so Gabriel needs to come in. Debuchy and Mertesacker together is just asking for trouble.

Midfield: Cazorla, Coquelin

Not much of a decision here. These two have been outstanding together over the past 8 months, plus we have very little option to mix things up with Wilshere, Ramsey and Arteta out.

Attack: Sanchez, Ozil, Gibbs

This may be controversial, especially after Campbell’s display at Swansea, but I’d start Gibbs in front of Monreal and move Sanchez to the right wing. Let’s face it, we’re going to see very little of the ball and need a compact defensive unit that can hit on the counter, so I’d go with Gibbs to offer extra protection.

Obviously it’s not ideal moving Sanchez over to the right but he can still do a job there and obviously Ozil should start in the hole again.

Striker: Giroud

Very little option up front either as Walcott and Welbeck are both still injured. We’re going to need a real shift from Olivier tomorrow night as he’s going to need to work hard up front on his own with little support.

So this would be my line-up:

In reality, I think Arsene may just stick with Campbell in attack but it will be interesting to see who he goes for out of Mertesacker and Gabriel. Either way, let’s hope for another impressive display that can bring home at least a point.

Instead of Debuchy I would rather play Gabriel in the right back position, if he can adapt. The former is so awful in his outings since he returned from injury!! I just pray for quick recovery to Bellerin, Otherwise we may start losing game after game from now on.